BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro-A group of thugs attacked two Croatian diplomats in the Serbian capital, slightly injuring one of them, police said Thursday.

The attack late Wednesday in the upscale Senjak neighborhood of Belgrade occurred when four unidentified attackers approached the parked car with the two diplomats, Branislav Loncar and Boris Herceg, police spokeswoman Dragana Kajganic said.

The car had diplomatic plates identifying it as a vehicle of the Croatian Embassy.

The attackers kicked and smashed the car, breaking the driver's window and striking Herceg, who was in the driver's seat, in the face, Kajganic said.

Police arrived within minutes, summoned by a cell phone call by Loncar, but the attackers fled.

Serbia-Montenegro's Foreign Ministry denounced the attack in a statement, and Croatia's Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said Croatia would lodge a formal protest to the Serbian authorities.

Police were searching for the attackers, Kajganic said.

Ethnic tensions persist between citizens of Serbia and Croatia, who were bitter enemies in the savage Balkan war of the early 1990s as the former Yugoslavia broke up. Violence occasionally follows soccer matches, but Wednesday's attack was the first reported assault here on Croat diplomats.

Loncar, deputy to Croatia's ambassador, and Herceg, the embassy's secretary, did not file a complaint.

January 26, 2006 11:21 AM